iconoclastic editorial-page writer and editor for the New York Times who championed liberal causes, notably civil rights, environmentalism, and human rights. He spoke out against the Vietnam War as early as 1965. Oakes began writing editorials for the paper in 1949, and became editor of the page in 1961. He was fired in 1976 by his cousin, the publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who felt Oakes's views had become too radical.